Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber recently released an amazing collaboration titled, “Monster,” and it appears the two are good pals now. But in the years before, there’s been rumors of a beef between the two.
The speculations appear to have stemmed from a bunch of interviews and interactions over the years – including some pretty awkward exchanges on social media over the title of “Prince Of Pop,” and when Hailey, who was previously romantically linked with Shawn, ended up marrying Justin.
So, what’s the actual deal about these rumors? Here’s the tea, according to Shawn…
Doing an “Actually Me” video for GQ, Shawn went undercover on the internet to answer questions that fans have been dying to know.
One fan asked, “I thought they weren’t friends at one point, was that true?”
“Justin and I were never enemies. We were maybe not friends. I mean, yeah, I guess I wasn’t texting and being like, ‘Yo, how you doing today?’” Shawn responded. “But we were never enemies, absolutely, and that’s kind of something that people maybe might’ve turned it into at some point.”
“When he made the video and he was like, ‘Who’s Shawn Mendes?’ he said he really genuinely didn’t know who I was and I believed him, so whatever,” he continued. “Maybe he did and he was trying to bug me either way. But I mean, honestly, I really love him. He’s been so sweet and super gracious, and giving with his advice and with his energy, so he’s a good friend.”
When another fan asked about when Shawn started singing, the “Wonder” singer even credited Justin as one of the artists who helped him find his voice musically – and what’s more, JB has no idea he did that.
“Probably 10 or 11, maybe even 12,” he replied, admitting, “I wasn’t a great singer. My sister would tell you that’s true, but I just loved singing and I would watch videos of like Bruno Mars, or Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran singing, and I would sit there in my bedroom and just try to mimic their vocal things and found my own voice through that process.”
Shawn had previously talked about how his cover of Justin’s song, “As Long As You Love Me” helped him gain traction on the now-defunct platform Vine – and gave fans an update about the whole sitch as well.
“That’s some phrase that I said when I was 15 that I just stuck to,” he revealed. “I did a cover of “As Long As You Love Me” and that’s the video that made my Vine account blow up.”
“So, thanks, Justin, all these years later,” he added.
He also opened up about the inspiration behind their collab “Monster.”
“Monster is more about how society likes to put everybody up on a pedestal, but I think society is constantly putting everybody up on a pedestal because we have social media,” he shared. “We’re always either putting each other on a pedestal or tearing each other down, and I think there is an unfair and not possible expectation for perfection that people kinda have to live up to on social media all the time – and ‘Monster’ is that.”
“It’s really just saying, ‘What if I trip? What if I fall? Does that make me a monster?’,” he continued, adding, “The answer is: No.”
“I really hope that that comes across in that way because it’s a really important song, I think, for that reason,” he said.
